Elevator hall lantern operation



Nov. 3, 1970 D. SANTINI 3,538,495

' ELEVATOR HALL LANTERN OPERATION Filed Feb. 1, 1967 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 4TH FLOOR 3RD FLOOR LL\ \w J F|G.l.

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United States Patent O 3,538,495 ELEVATOR HALL LANTERN OPERATION Danilo Santini, Cape Coral, Fla., assignor to Westinghouse Electric Corporation, Pittsburgh, Pa., a corporation of Pennsylvania Filed Feb. 1, 1967, Ser. No. 613,330 Int. Cl. B661: 3/

US. Cl. 340-19 4 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE An apparatus utilizing visible light beams transmitted from an elevator car to initiate operation of hall lanterns located adjacent to the elevator entranceway at each floor. The lanterns indicate the direction in which a car which will stop or has stopped at a particular floor will depart that floor.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to elevator systems having signaling devices and more particularly elevator systems having hall lanterns at each landing for indicating the direction in which an approaching car will depart that landing.

The invention is applicable to elevator systems employing one or more elevator cars serving any desired number of landings or floors of a structure or building. It has become quite common to install lights at each landing to indicate whether an approaching car will depart in the up or down direction. In some installations, an audible signal is also provided to draw attention to the lights. The purpose of these indicators is to inform prospective passengers of the direction in which the car will travel when it departs the floor where the passenger is waiting. This reduces confusion of the passengers and eliminates delays in operation of the elevator system due to such confusion. Such an indicator system is particularly useful in the multicar system, By turning on the appropriate light be- ,tfor the car arrives at a floor where it is to stop, loading is expedited. The prospective passengers can begin moving toward the appropriate car before it has arrived. It is usual in such a system that an up or down signal only be given if the car is to stop at that floor. This helps to eliminate frustration of the passengers when they are passed up by a loaded car or a car on a specific assignment.

The conventional method for operating the up and down lanterns is to provide a set of contacts for this purpose on the floor selector. Since floor selectors are well known in the art, it will suffice to say that a floor selector is a device in the form of a carriage, which is moved in synchronism with the car, having sets of brushes attached to it which successively make contact with stationary contacts to complete circuits which perform predetermined operations depending upon the position of the car in the hoistway. The floor selector is located in the penthouse which necessitates a great deal of wiring between each of the lanterns and the floor selector. 'In the usual two light system, this requires one control wire for each lantern at each floor plus a common. It will be appreciated that this will amount to a considerable amount of wiring in a high rise building and greatly increase the installation cost.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In my invention, the lanterns at each floor are energized from a common source running down the hatchway. Operation of the up and down lantern at each floor is controlled by a unit exclusive to that floor. The controller in the penthouse conditions all the floor units for either an up or down indication when a stop is to be made. Visible light beams are transmitted by projectors on the ice car to trigger the unit at the floor which the car is ap preaching for the stop to turn on the appropriate lantern.

It is, therefore, an object of the invention to provide an improved signaling system for elevator cars.

It is a further object of the invention to provide an elevator system with an improved method of notifying prospective passengers that an approaching elevator car will stop at his floor.

It is a further object of the invention to provide an elevator system with an improved method for notifying a prospective passenger of the direction in which an approaching car will depart his floor.

It is a primary object of this invention to provide the above features with a minimum of wiring.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Other objects of the invention will be apparent from the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a view partly in side elevation and partly in section of an elevator installation embodying the invention;

FIG. .2 is a diagrammatic illustration of the circuits for one embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 3 is a diagrammatic illustration of the circuits for the projectors mounted on the car;

FIG. 4 is a schematic view in straight line form of a portion of the circuit found in the controller; and

FIG. 5 is a diagrammatic illustration of the circuits for another embodiment of the invention.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The invention can be used with just about any present day elevator system whether single or multicar, automatic or attendant operated, Since certain control functions are necessary for the operation of the invention, it will be shown in a complete elevator system. The system disclosed in Pat. No. 2,740,495 issued to D. Santini on Apr. 3, 1956 is satisfactory for this purpose. It can be assumed that the system in which the invention is embodied performs substantially identically to the system in Santini except for the method of hall lantern operation illustrated in the lower half of FIG. 5 of that patent. The same reference characters will be used here where applicable. Since the operation is identical for other cars in a multicar system, only one car will be considered in the present discussion.

FIG. 1 shows an elevator car A suspended in a hoistway by a cable 21 by which the car is caused to move up and down within the hoistway. At each floor, there is a floor unit identified by the character FU preceded by a numeral identifying the floor. The floor units are located above the door at each floor. These units extend through the Wall between the corridor and the hatchway. On the corridor side are the indicators indicating the direction in which the car will depart the floor. These indicators are quite often in the form of colored lights, usually green for up and red for down, although any suitable indicator may be used. On the hoistway side of the floor units are photoelectric cells identified as PC in FIG. 1.

Three projectors L, T and S are mounted on the car A. Projectors L and T are mounted on the roof and projector S is mounted beneath the car. With the car positioned so that the floor of the car is level with the third floor as shown in FIG. 1, projector L illuminates the photocells of 3FU. Projector T, which is mounted so that its beam is projected up at an angle, will illuminate the photocells on a floor unit in advance of the car reaching that floor when the car is traveling in the up direction. This provides a lead time in informing a prospective passenger that the car is about to stop at his floor and that it will depart traveling in the up direction. For the system shown in FIG. 1, if the car A proceeds up the shaft, the beam from projector T will illuminate the photocells of 4FU and if the car is to be stopped at the fourth floor the up lantern 4UL will be illuminated well in advance of the arrival of the car. A realistic lead would be slightly less than one 11001. This would be true even for a high speed elevator since deceleration must be begun well in advance of the floorat which it is to stop in the interest of passenger comfort. The average velocity of the car in traveling the distance between the stopping point and a point one floor in advance would not be much different for the high speed elevator.

Projector T may be offset in a direction perpendicular to the plane of FIG. 1 to avoid the shadow of the cable 21. Its beam should be so focused that it will illuminate both of the photocells on the floor units. This is desirable so that the lead time will also be given when a car is answering a down call at a floor above the position of the car at the time it receives the assignment. Under such circumstances, it is desirable to turn on the down lantern while the car is still traveling in the up direction. The apparatus for selecting the down lantern for illumination rather than the up lantern will be discussed below.

Projector S from its position underneath the car shines its beam horizontally to provide a lead in operation of the down lantern when the car is traveling in the down direction. Since as mentioned above the floor units are located above the entranceway at each floor substantially the same lead is provided in operating the down lantern as is achieved in operating the up lantern on upward travel of the car.

Projector L projects two beams horizontally, one striking each of the photoelectric cells found on the floor unit. These beams will illuminate the photoelectric cells when the car is level at the floor. They are used to initiate operation of the lanterns when a car is to be dispatched from a terminal floor or when it is desired to re-initiate lantern operation after it has been terminated. The purpose for this will become clear from the discussion below.

With the car traveling in the up direction, even if it is to reverse after it makes a stop, projector T is on. While traveling in the down direction projector S is on, and, under certain conditions to be set out below, while at rest at a floor projector L is on.

Operation of the floor units can be understood from the circuit diagram of FIG. 2. Only the third fioor unit is shown but it is typical. Modifications are needed for terminal floors and for the basement but these modifications would be obvious to one skilled in the art in view of the Santini patent. For purposes of illustration consider a car below the third floor traveling in the up direction to answer an up call at the third floor. As the car approaches the third floor, the contacts ULRl of the up lantern relay, the operation of which is explained below, will be closed to condition each of the floor units, including the third floor unit, for operating the associated up lantern. When the car is approximately one floor below the third floor the beam of the projector T will activate the photoelectric cell 3UPC. Each floor unit contains two photoelectric cells. One is an up photoelectric cell designated UPC preceded by the floor prefix while the other is a down photocell designated DPC preceded by the floor prefix. Associated with each photocell is a relay, an up control relay designated UC preceded by the floor prefix for the up photocell,

and a down control relay designated DC preceded by the 4 3PP, 3UPC, 3UC, 3DC2, ULRl Energization of the relay SUC causes the make contacts 3UC1 of that relay to complete a holding circuit so that as the car moves on up the hoistway, and the beam from projector T no longer impinges upon SUPC, the up control relay will remain activated. In addition, the break contacts 3UC2 open to insure non-interference from the down control relay 3DC. The make contacts 3UC3 also close to energize the up lantern 3UL from conductors L10 and L20. The lantern 3UL will remain illuminated until the contacts ULRl are reopened.

As the car travels down the hatchway the lantern S is turned on. If the car is to stop at the next floor, the make contacts DLR1 of the down lantern relay, the operation of which will be explained below, are closed to condition each of the floor units for operating the associated down lantern. When the beam of light from lantern S strikes the photocell 3DPC the following circuit is completed:

3PP, 3DPC, soc, 3UC2, DLRl Activation of the relay 3DC closes its make contacts 3DC3 to turn on the down lantern 3DL. This lantern will remain illuminated until the DLR relay is dropped out. This is true because, as was the case with the up control relay, holding contacts, here 3DC1, provide continued energization of the down control relay once its operation is triggered by the light beam.

If a car which has been idle is to be dispatched or if the signal has been canceled and circuits described below are completed to reinitiate lantern operation at that floor, one of the beams from the L projector will activate the appropriate photoelectric cell. Since the beams from the L projectors illuminate both SUPC and 3DPC, which lantern will be illuminated depends upon whether the contacts DLRl or the contacts ULRl are closed. Projector L by shining its light on the photocell when the car is at the floor, maintains the lantern energized after beam T or S no longer impinges on its respective photocell. This insures lighting of the lantern in the proper direction when the car is at the floor in the event relays 3UC or 3DC drop out momentarily breaking its holding circuit.

The circuits controlling the operation of the projectors mounted on the car are shown in FIG. 3. Only four conductors between the car and the controller, which is located in the penthouse, are required; one for each of the projector units and the common. Projector T is on whenever the make contacts W13 of the up preference relay W and R9 of the door control relay R are closed. Projector S is on whenever the make contacts X13 of the down preference relay X and R10 of the door control relay R are closed. Reference to the Santini patent will show that the relay R is activated any time that the doors of the car are closed or closing. A full explanation of the operation of the W and X relays can also be found in the Santini patent. However, suflice it to say that these two relays are activated in the alternative. The circuit for each of these relays contains a set of break contacts of the other relay so that only one of these relays may be activated at a time. Furthermore, if the circuit to the relay that is activated is interrupted the other relay is activated. Such a switch over occurs whenever the limit switches at the top or the bottom of the elevator travel are tripped. Normal ly the up preference relay W will be activated any time the car is traveling in the up direction. This is true even when it has stopped at a floor as long as it will continue in the up direction when it resumes movement. Alternatively, the down preference relay X will be activated any time the car is making a downward trip even though it is stopped at a floor. It will be seen then that the projector T will be on anytime that the car is conditioned for upward travel and the doors are closed or closing and that projector S will be on anytime the car is conditioned for downward travel and the doors are closed or closing.

'the system described at the time that the running relay M is dropped out at motor cutoff which occurs a few inches from floor level. Since the T projector will activate the down photocell, as explained above, when it is approximately one floor below the floor where the car is to make the reversal, its function is performed before the change over from up preference to down preference is made.

Operation of the L projectors is controlled by the :break contact R7 of the door control relay R. As mentioned above, this relay is activated whenever the doors of the elevator car are closed or closing. Hence it is deactivated, and the L lanterns are illuminated, whenever the doors of the elevator car are opened or opening. In normal operation, other than the situation where an idle car is prepared for dispatch, the L projectors have no operative effect because once the lantern units are tripped by the T or the S projector they will remain illuminated. However, as explained below, the signal will be canceled as the doors begin to close. If the doors are reopened, it is desirable to reinitiate lantern operation. As the doors begin to open again, R will drop out thus turning on the L lanterns. The proper lantern will then be illuminated depending upon whether ULR1 or DLRl contacts are closed. Since projectors T and S perform a function only when the cars in motion started to slowdown, they should be disconnected when the car stands still with the doors open to avoid any interference. A

make contact of relay R in series with projectors T and S accomplishes that function. With the modifications of Santini at the terminal floors for dispatching, the L projectors will be necessary for initiating lantern operation once the car had been chosen to be dispatched.

The determination as to when the lantern should be turned on and whether it should be an up lantern or a down lantern is governed by the relays ULR and DLR located in the controller. Operation of these relays can beunderstood by reference to FIG. 4. In order for either ULR or DLR to be activated, either the holding relay G must be activated or the door control relay R must bedeactivated. As mentioned previously, relay R is deactivated only when the doors are opened or opening. Relay Gis only activated when the car is to make the next stop at a floor and the running relay is still in.

' It can be seen then that when the car is traveling through the hoistway and is not within one floor of a stop neither ULR nor DLR can be activated. Hence, even though the projector T or S, depending on a direction of travel of the car, is illuminating the photoelectric cells at each lantern unit as the car travels through the hoistway, the floor lanterns will not be turned on. In other words, the operation of the relays ULR and DLR is synchronized by the relay G or R to the position of the car in the hoistway with respect to landings at which the car is to stop. When the car is to stop at the next floor, G will be picked up and the make contacts G3 will be closed. If the car had been traveling in the up direction and was not on a high call reversal, the following circuit would be completed to activate the up lantern relay:

L1, G3, W14, 78U4, 78P3, ULR, L2

As was mentioned previously since the car is traveling in the up direction, the T projector would be on. Now when the light beam projected by projector T strikes an up photoelectric cell for instance 3UPC at the third floor, the relay 3UC would be activated which would in turn turn on the lantern 3UL. As the car nears the landing point, inductor relays cutoff the motor which in turn starts the opening of the doors. As the doors begin to open, the R relay is dropped out closing the break contacts R8 to maintain the continuity of the circuit activating ULR even though relay G is now dropped out. The contacts W14 remain closed because relay W, the up preference relay, remains activated as long as the car is to continue its travel in the up direction. A momentary time delay can be provided on the G3 contacts to insure that they remain closed until after the R8 contacts have closed. If the car had been traveling in the down direction the X14 contacts would have been closed and the DLR relay would have been activated when the G3 contacts closed.

As mentioned previously, when a car is assigned to a high call reversal, it is desirable to turn on the down lantern as the car approaches from below since that is the direction in which the car will depart after it has made its stop. Therefore, the DLR relay rather than the ULR relay must be activated. The elevator system disclosed in the Santini patent divides the landings onto two zones for more efficient operation. These zones are the high zone and the low zone. Under certain conditions, it is desirable to have a car make ahigh call reversal in the low zone while ignoring calls in the high zone. It is also desirable to have a high call reversal capability for the high zone. In order to achieve this flexibility, Santini utilizes two relays, the first, 78U, is a high call relay for the high zone, the second, 78?, is a high call relay for the low zone. Contacts 78U4 and 78P3 are inserted in series between contacts W14 and relay ULR so that when a car is on a high call reversal the up lanterns cannot be turned on even though the up preference relay is activated. Instead it is desired that the relay DLR be activated. In order to achieve this, make contacts 78U5 and 78P4 are independently shunted around the contacts X14 so that the relay DLR may be activated even though the down preference relay is not activated. As mentioned above, the beam of projector T in the hoistway above the car is broad enough to strike both the up and the down photoelectric cells at each floor. Therefore, when the car is one floor below the floor at which it is to reverse its direction, the down lantern will be illuminated at the floor at which the reversal is to be made. When the motor cuts out a few inches below the fioor, the up preference relay W is dropped and the down preference relay X is picked up. At the same time 78U and 78P are dropped out thus opening contacts 78U5 and 78P-4. By providing these contacts with momentary time delays continuity of energization for DLR during the change over can be assured.

Since the beam from projector T is only needed to initiate operation of the down lantern, it is of no consequence that projector T goes out when the up preference relay is dropped out. In fact, once activated the lantern will stay on until either ULR or DLR are dropped out. This occurs when the doors begin to close since R is then activated opening the break contacts R8. If the door is opened again before the car moves R will drop out again closing contacts R8. X14 is now closed so again DLR is activated. Projector L will now activate the proper down photoelectric cell to rein-itiate operation of the down lantern.

FIG. 5 shows another embodiment of the invention in which only one photocell is utilized at each floor and only one power pack, connected to all the units through the ULR and DLR relays is required. Discrimination between up and down signals is obtained solely by the use of the ULR and DLR relays.

From the drawings, it is evident that only a total of nine wires are required for the lantern system herein proposed. This includes five wires down the hatchway common to all the floor units and four to the car. This number of conductors remains constant regardless of the number of floors. Hence, obviously the more floors there are the greater the saving. Although light beams are utilized to trigger the floor units in the system described in detail, other means such as mechanical, ultrasonic or electrostatic means could be used to perform that function.

In summary, operation of a hall lantern is dependent upon the coincidence of two events. First, the control unit associated with the lanterns at the selected floor must be conditioned for operating a lantern and, second, the conditioned control unit must be triggered. Minimum wiring is achieved by conditioning all of the units at the same time for one of two states of operation, either for giving an up signal or a down signal. Triggering is accomplished by a light beam projected from the car. Singling out of the one control unit to be triggered is achieved by synchronizing the conditioning of the control units with the position of the car in the hoistway. Once the conditioned control unit is triggered to turn on the appropriate lantern, that lantern will remain illuminated until the conditioning is dropped.

I claim as my invention:

1. An elevator system comprising a hoistway having a plurality of landings, an elevator car, means mounting said car for reciprocation within said hoistway to serve the landings, motive means for moving the car relative to the hoistway, regulating means for controlling the motive means to cause the car to travel in a selected direction and to stop at selected landings, selectively operated indicator means at each landing for indicating the direction selected by the regulating means in which the car will depart that landing and the improvement which comprises control means at each landing for selectively con trolling the operation of said indicator means, conditioning means within said regulating means which, when activated, simultaneously conditions each of said control means to be prepared to operate the associated indicator means to indicate the direction, selected by the regulating means, in which the car will travel when it resumes movement subsequent to a stop, triggering means connected to said car for movement with the car and operative when activated to individually trigger the preconditioned control means at landings approached by the car to individually initiate operation of the associated indicator means to indicate the direction of travel directed by the conditioning means, and synchronizing means within the regulating means for synchronizing the activation of the conditioning means and the triggering means, said synchronizing means being effective to activate both the conditioning means and the triggering means simultaneously only in response to an indication from the regulating means that the car is approaching a selected landing at which it is to stop and when it is stopped at a selected landing.

2. The elevator system of claim 1 in which the triggering means comprises means for projecting three beams of energy from said car, including first means projectinga first beam of energy for triggering the associated control means as the car approaches the land-ing at which the car is to stop from below, second means projecting a second beam of energy for triggering the associated control means as the car approaches from above and third means projecting a third beam of energy for triggering said control means when the car is stopped at a landing, the system also including means Within each control means responsive to said beams of energy whereby the associated direction indicator means can be operated to indicate the appropriate direction in advance of the arrival of the car at a landing and also when a car is adjacent a landing.

3. The elevator system of claim 2 in which said indicator means at a plurality of said landings comprise two lanterns, the first for indicating that a departing car will travel in the up direction and the second to indicate that a departing car will travel in the down direction, in which said means for projecting said beams of energy comprise projectors projecting beams of visible light, the first projector being mounted on top of said car in such a manner that its beam Will strike the control means associated with a landing when said car is a substantial distance below said landing, the second projector being mounted underneath the car in such a manner that its beam will strike the control means associated with the landing when said car is a substantial distance above said landing, and the third projector being mounted on said car in such a manner that its beam strikes the control means associated with the landing when the car is approximately level with the landing, in which the synchronizing means includes means for energizing said first projector when the car is traveling in the up direction, for energizing the second projector when the car is traveling in the down direction and for energizing the third projector when the car is stopped at a landing, and in which the synchronizing means also includes means eifective to activate the conditioning means in response to the indication from the regulating means that the car'is approaching a selected landing at which it is to stop and when it is stopped at a selected landing.

4. The elevator system of claim 3 in combination with means within the regulating means operative to cause the conditioning means to simultaneously condition each of said control means to be prepared to operate the associated down indicator while the car is traveling in the up direction when the car approaches a landing from below at which the regulating means indicates that it is to stop and reverse its direction, the operation of said indicator being initiated by the triggering of the associated control means by the beam from said first projector.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 733,750 7/1903 Reiners 340-19 1,840,014 1/ 1932 Bergstein. 1,848,366 3/ 1932 Lewis 34019 2,740,495 4/ 1956 Santini et al.

FOREIGN PATENTS 445,739 6/1927 Germany.

ALVIN H. WARING, Primary Examiner K. N. LEIMER, Assistant Examiner 

